Credibility: Fox's flagship news program quotes "JammieWearingFool"

If you anchored an evening newscast and were reporting on a statement by the Senate majority leader, where would you look for a rejoinder?

If you were Bret Baier, you'd read the remark from Harry Reid and then quote a "slightly different take" from "one conservative blogger" -- the blogger in question being JammieWearingFool.

Here's Baier on Monday's Special Report:

Apart from the questionable cleverness of JammieWearingFool's response, Baier should have been more selective for a solid journalistic reason: JammieWearingFool is a bad source of information. He has a history of picking up hoaxes and presenting them as genuine. He treated a blog post about Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) spending time in a "mental hospital" as potentially real -- but the post was marked "satire." Likewise, he fell for another bit of satire about a global warming activist freezing to death in Antarctica. He also promoted the easily debunked line of attack that it was "[a]nother slap in the face to our veterans" for Obama to honor the troops on Memorial Day somewhere other than Arlington National Cemetery. (The past three Republican presidents have done the same.)

And then there was the time that he compared Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's looks to those of a male former CNN reporter.

In a way, Baier's decision to quote JammieWearingFool makes sense, given Fox News' long history of harvesting phony stories and bankrupt lines of attack from right-wing bloggers -- the utterly discredited Jim Hoft quickly jumps to mind.

The New York Times was forced to issue two corrections after relying on Capitol Hill anonymous sourcing for its flawed report on emails from former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The Clinton debacle is the latest example of why the media should be careful when relying on leaks from partisan congressional sources -- this is far from the first time journalists who did have been burned.

Several Fox News figures are attempting to shift partial blame onto Samuel DuBose for his own death at the hands of a Cincinnati police officer during a traffic stop, arguing DuBose should have cooperated with the officer's instructions if he wanted to avoid "danger."

Iowa radio host Steve Deace is frequently interviewed as a political analyst by mainstream media outlets like NPR, MSNBC, and The Hill when they need an insider's perspective on the GOP primary and Iowa political landscape. However, these outlets may not all be aware that Deace gained his insider status in conservative circles by broadcasting full-throated endorsements of extreme right-wing positions on his radio show and writing online columns filled with intolerant views that he never reveals during main stream media appearances.